Page 178 of The Stolen Crown

He would likely be a king of the glamour fae before he ever bore the blood crown of the Ever, but for two kingdoms, he would be a force for good, for strength.

When Tait’s blood was added to the crown, the points sparked in a vibrant red. Next, Tavish and his young ones added theirs. But Erik did not stop at his blood. Every noble house added their line to the succession of the blood crown. Every noble house, after all, was led by the most trusted in the Ever Seas.

Gavyn, then Celine, then Avaline all added their blood, all became successors. New, strong cogs in what was working to make a new Ever Kingdom.

I could hardly wait to see it unfold.

Epilogue

The Heartwalker

A turn before, if a man told me I would be striding across the great hall with the sole purpose of asking an earth fae princess to dance with me, I would’ve sunk my blade into his ribs for the mere suggestion of such a thing.

Mira sipped a flute of the Ever King’s wine. Gods, she was a sight. Her gown was made of fine silks from the Rusa isles and revealed a great deal of her slender thigh. Gold rings lined her ears, and she’d painted the corners of her eyes in shimmering gold powder.

I paused mere paces away simply to marvel at her. Surrounded by folk from her kingdom and a gaggle of sea witches, whose eyes were painted much the same, she was like the first star in a calm night after a torturous day.

All around us, folk from across the seas laughed and collided in magics and cultures. The queen’s family and inner courts wore dark tunics and bone piercings, alvers with cowls and fur cloaks, elven folk with their eerily bright eyes, and even a few cautious mortals from Eilifur.

Many of the mortal folk did not understand their long lives came from the golden pomes.

To protect Eeva, we blamed Lena, insisting she cast spells upon them without their knowing. We gave the mortals the choice to continue extending their lives through fae rituals or sea witch spells. Or they could rest and meet the gods naturally.

Many spoke with Livia’s mother and grandmother, two mortal queens who would live as long as their fae family.

Between earth fae and sea fae, there was a quiet agreement we would not tell the folk of Eilifur their lives were extended through the death of fae.

The fault was not theirs, and should they know the truth, it would bring a greater risk for any greedy brutes to rise and take Djur’s place.

Under Harald’s viciousness, Sea Folk were solitary. Left to stew in our anger and hatred. To see the Ever so filled with endless people, it was not the land in which I was raised.

The Ever Seas were so much more.

I brushed a hand down my tunic, one threaded in midnight purple, selected by my vicious princess. She’d insisted it would compliment the linens on the table she and Alistair had painstakingly mulled over these last weeks.

What did I care how I was dressed, so long as she tore it off at the end of the night?

I shoved through the line of fae and brushed my knuckles down the back of Mira’s arm. Her eyes brightened at the sight of me. I would never lack in appreciation that out of everyone in the hall, this woman looked at me with the purest devotion.

“Dance with me, Vicious,” I said, voice low.

“Tobias.” She faced the fae man who’d once asked the same from me and handed over her flute. “Hold this, won’t you? I have to put my hands on this man for a time.”

Tobias grinned and unknowingly struck the shoulder of a sea witch called Dealkeeper, a man with a talent for bespelling contracts and wagers. If any of his deals were ever betrayed or cheated, his spell casts left folk bleeding out with the symbols of a grifter carved into their flesh.

The two men grinned at each other and turned away from us before we reached the center of the ballroom.

Mira hooked her arm around my neck and pressed her body to mine. “You’ve taken quite some time to ask me for a dance, Lord Hearttalker.”

I still was not accustomed to a true title, but it had been accepted by the houses of the Ever Seas. So, too, was the new line of succession. Truth be told, it seemed as though our folk found it to be a bit of a relief that blood and death would not fight for the crown when Erik and Livia met the gods.

I dragged my nose alongside Mira’s cheek. “Apologies. I took too much pleasure in merely watching you.”

“Such a confession might be unsettling to some women, but I find it all twisted and romantic, this newly developed obsession with me.”

“I do not think it is so newly developed.”

Mira was the better dancer between the two of us, but she never admitted such a thing and merely said she delighted in having my body against hers.